A Network of Our Own

by Makani N. Themba
SeeingBlack.com Political Editor

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If Black Entertainment Television's (BET) recent firing of talent Tavis Smiley feels like déjà vu there's good reason. It's only the most recent in a long line of problems Black folk have with "the media." Whether it's the firing of Black talent or the dissing of Black programming, these incidents reinforce our collective belief that corporate media is more interested in squashing Black voice than in raising it. And African Americans have always felt keenly about "our" media, our image and our voice.

BET Tonight Host Tavis Smiley

In fact, it was allegations that Smiley's firing was really the decision of BET's new parent company, media mega-power Viacom, that really got folks' blood boiling. (The allegations were made by radio personality Tom Joyner among others.) Among those boiling was BET's CEO Robert Johnson, who expanded Smiley's old vehicle, "BET Tonight," to an hour so he could vigorously refute the allegations, and assert that Smiley's termination was indeed all his doing.

Johnson's vigorous claim that he is bought yet unbossed left many unanswered questions. For example, if Smiley was indeed fired for selling a coveted interview to ABC without first offering it to BET, would Johnson consider it less of an affront if Smiley had sold the interview with the former Symbionese Liberation Army member to Viacom-owned CBS? How will BET fare as part of Viacom, given Viacom's ownership of MTV, UPN and other related properties? And what of BET's longtime programming slide that certainly predates Viacom? Will the buyout, as Johnson has assured viewers, improve quality or simply burden the network with irrelevant programming for the sake of corporate "synergy"?

Of course, Viacom is not the blame for much of BET's problems. The company's cancellation of public affairs programming, selling of properties, and the dumbing down of others has been underway for a while. "Teen Summit," "Our Voices," Emerge magazine, YSB magazine and 360hiphop.com are among BET's victims in their effort to get "competitive."

The code word they use for this practice is "lifestyling." It's pr-speak for when a media organization strips their publication or program of most of its political content and concentrates on stuff they can sell -- beauty, fashion, food, etc. -- until there's nothing left but the bare bones, no frills consumerism. Although BET was never a great network, it is still quite some distance from where it began.

Years ago, I was among the many African Americans who pushed for local cable companies to air BET. Johnson then spoke of a network that would offer a voice to our communities that was varied, multi dimensional and educational. Now, Johnson is singing a different tune. "Music videos are anchor programming on BET," he said in the "BET Tonight" interview. Given BET's slogan, "Now That's Black," it's too bad the tag line is now synonymous for narrow, one-dimensional programming.

Yet, it's not just about Johnson or BET. It's much deeper -- and wider than that. BET is commercial media and commercial media is uh, well, commercial. It is designed to reap profits, sell advertising, and shape us into malleable consumers. The rules of this game dictate that Black folk are best served up singing and dancing, and are not nearly as entertaining or profitable when focused on issues of justice.

The truth is that the whole commercial media infrastructure, from the way it measures audience share (have YOU ever been a Nielsen family?) to the way it chooses programming, reinforces and institutionalizes racism and white privilege. And jumping up and down about one on-air personality or a single quality program won't change that. We have to move higher up the food chain.

Many of the decisions about media and how it does its business are made in Congress. The 1996 Telecommunications Act passed with little attention (much less outcry) by national "Black leadership" yet the results were devastating to Black voice. The law restricted a huge number of digital "airwaves" from public access, and ushered in higher cable rates, more mergers and less accountability from media in general. It's now harder to challenge station licenses under the law and even tougher to get a station of your own.

Currently, a small number of groups are fighting for better terms on this deal, including the establishment of a $20-50 million fund for airtime for "non commercial" television. (see http://www.bettertv.org for starters). Other groups have taken on monitoring negative imagery and are using their findings to hold outlets more accountable. We Interrupt This Message worked with youth groups to complete two studies on portrayals of youth of color (http://www.interrupt.org) and the Center on Blacks and the Media offers a number of tools for media monitoring of Black imagery at http://www.afrikan.net/hype/. Of course, still others are working hard to create "our own."

It's important that we get involved in the work to shape media policy because media shapes so much of who we are and who our children will become. To do so will require that we fight for space that is beyond the grasp of the market. Our image and voice are too important to be left to the vagaries of the bottom line. If we learn anything from BET, it might be that it takes more than Black faces at the top to create media that truly reflects the diversity and richness of African American communities.

Four hundred years ago, African people in the Americas were stripped of their drums in fear on the part of slaveholders that our drums would connect us into a unified force of rebellion. To remove our drums, and in some cases even our hands if we endeavored to play them, was an attempt to separate and weaken us. The BET controversy exposes how much we are still struggling over the return of our drums, our way to connect to this larger whole, this "Africanity" that we share. Perhaps with a concerted effort to take back our media, make some of our own, and cause trouble for corporate media who mistreat us, we'll one day be able to watch, listen or tune in somewhere, smile with pride and say, "Now that's Black."

-- April 9, 2001

Makani Themba is Political Editor for SeeingBlack.com. Her latest book is "Making Policy, Making Change" and she is a contributor to the recently published anthology, "State of the Race: Creating Our 21st Century."

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